Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Lakers beat the Blazers 114-106

Starting point is 00:00:05 You are a Locked-on Lakers Postcast. Part of Locked-on Sports Los Angeles on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Play without Anthony Davis. LeBron James has never looked better, and Max Christie finally looks like he belongs. We talked about it all on the Lockdown Lakers Postcast. Again, very exciting night.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Lakers win 114-106 over the Portland Trailblazers. And at the same time, when you're looking at what the Lakers are doing, The Lakers are able to come out and put the bad loss behind them. What happened on New Year's Eve when they lose to Cleveland at home. You have two home games remaining on this four-game stretch with Portland tonight and Atlanta tomorrow. And the Lakers take care of business. At times, it didn't look like the Lakers are going to take care of business, look like a little bit of a hangover, maybe an idea of trying to figure out what they were going to do.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Anthony Davis did not play tonight. And so for the Lakers to say you were going to play with that one of your best players, one of the best players in the entire NBA and say, which guys are going to pick it up. It was surprising. It was surprising how it went. You expect some of the big name guys to do their job, whether it's an Austin Reeves or LeBron James. There wasn't a surprise tonight. We'll get into that as well. But the Lakers overall, they win, and that's what's most important. Taking care of business on this home stand. As we mentioned before, the Lakers are in a stretch with they're playing a lot of games at home. They need to take care of these games.

Starting point is 00:01:31 They also have to take care of games against teams that have losing records, teams that aren't going to make the playoffs. the teams like the Portland Trailblazers. So for the Lakers to come out kind of slow, made it a little bit scary tonight. Let's pick things up in the first quarter. For the last five, Jackson Hayes, Rui, Austin Reeves, Max Christie, and LeBron James. As I mentioned before, Lakers are very good against teams

Starting point is 00:01:56 that are below 500, actually 13 and 4 after tonight's game. But against teams with winning records, Lakers are 6 and 10. They have to play better basketball than that if they want to be legitimate contenders to win an NBA title. Lakers coming into the game five and two in their last seven games, which is positive. Again, some of these losses, though, they hurt a little bit more.

Starting point is 00:02:16 When you lose the teams like the Pistons twice in one year and especially losing at home, terrible, calves come to town and you're thinking, hey, it's Cleveland. They have the best record in the NBA for a reason. It's LeBron's former team, but they're playing the second game of back-to-backs. Maybe the Lakers can steal one from Cleveland. They weren't able to do it. made leaving 2024 very disappointing. So the players get off to a hot start on the Lakers, 31-27 after one-quarter of play.

Starting point is 00:02:44 Lakers, a big moment in the game, I thought, came when they lost a challenge with 8.30 remaining in the first quarter. It was the Jackson-Hays block shot that they said was a goaltending. Now they reviewed it. And so if you know you fail on your challenge, you lose it, you lose a timeout. For the Lakers, to me and to the announcers, the ball was going up. I don't know, again, how this happens all the time that you see the NBA referee, go to the table, look at it, and it's obvious the way certain calls are. And sure enough, it goes against the Lakers. Well, not only did it hurt the Lakers because they miss out on the points and they give them to the Blazers, but at the same time, Jackson Hayes cost them basically a timeout as well when they review it.

Starting point is 00:03:27 So Jackson Hayes, who came out with a lot of enthusiasm, I'm a Jackson Hayes fan. We don't talk a lot about him because he's been injured a lot during the first part of the year. But I'm a fan. I'm always a fan of the guys. When I go to the arena on a press credential and I'm in there at, let's say, two in the afternoon, I like to look around and see which guys come in early to work on their game. And Jackson Hayes is one of those guys that works on his game. If you're a Laker fan that's a person that goes to games as soon as the gates open,

Starting point is 00:03:55 you'll see Jackson Hayes is always on the court. He's always working on his game. And he's a big body. the Lakers need him. He's not an all-star by any means, but he's a guy that brings enthusiasm, can play defense, can clog up the middle a little bit.

Starting point is 00:04:09 But it hurt that Jackson Hayes got an opportunity tonight without AED, and right away, he gets two points, but he also says two fouls in the first five minutes of the game, and that hurts the Lakers big time. So you go, what are you going to do? Well, guess what? Coloco all of a sudden does great, right? Colico does absolutely outstanding.

Starting point is 00:04:27 He led the Lakers of six points off the bench in the first quarter, and that was surprised because we know that here's a guy that wants to be on the floor. Whenever he's on the floor, he supplies energy. But he's a guy that looks so raw, we don't know what we're going to get from him. So he gives you six points off the bench exactly what the Lakers needed. And it made them basically hang tough throughout the first quarter because it looked like the Lakers will get in for a long night the way that game started. You look at what the Blazers did. The Blazers do what almost every team does against the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:04:55 I don't care if you're a bad team or a good team. The Lakers always face a team that wants to beat. the Lakers more than any other team in the NBA. And I don't care if it's the Warriors. The only team I think that's maybe in the same, I guess, category as the Lakers, has to be Boston, where teams on the East to want to beat the Celtics. The Lakers have beat up on these teams for years.

Starting point is 00:05:14 They have a bunch of titles. You walk into the arena, their banners and retired jerseys all over the place. Look, the NBA is the Lakers. It is the Boston Celtics. You know, I always say the Larry Bird line is the best line in sports. Unless you played for the Lakers or Celtics, you never really played in the NBA. And so teams know when you're going against LeBron James and you're playing at Crypto

Starting point is 00:05:34 that this is the highlight of your season. And you got all the movie stars that are around the court as well. You want to play extremely well. So Portland came out with a ton of energy tonight. LeBron James, by the way, in the first quarter, no one really stood out in the first quarter for the Lakers. But LeBron being the pro that he is, you know, simple enough, four points, three assists, trying to find his rhythm. You'll see that with LeBron a lot.

Starting point is 00:05:55 LeBron is one of those guys that can score almost at will. he can take the ball to the hoop and hardly anybody can stop him. We saw a lot of layups from LeBron James, and that was something we were critical of about 30 days ago. Again, LeBron James gets the foul line. LeBron's been taking the ball to the basket a lot lately, but yeah, I think LeBron is a guy that doesn't mind being a guy that dishes out 10 to 12 assists a game.

Starting point is 00:06:16 So he starts off in the first quarter, four points, three assists, kind of balanced. All right, Austin Reeves, he only had three points, one of five shooting. And if you look what Portland did, we told he before, Austin Reeves is playing an all-star level. basketball. The numbers he's putting up of late have made him one of the best players in this league. Well, what do a Portland do? They came out with attitude is if we stop Austin Reeves, we can beat the Lakers. Who would have ever thought that that would happen this soon? When you have Anthony Davis, who's years away from retiring. LeBron James, who says, hey, I'm, you know, maybe a five, seven years left in my career all of a sudden.

Starting point is 00:06:49 But still, Portland's game plan was stop Austin Reeves and they can beat the Lakers. Lakers shot 41% from the floor, 25% for three point range. Sharp for Portland had 11 points, but again, the Lakers trailed after 1, 31,27. Second quarter, the Lakers did a better job. Jackson Hayes, he picked up his third a foul, but J.J. Redd decided to leave him in the game. 514 remaining in the half, and he picks up his third foul, and JJ said, forget it. We're going to leave them in the game anyway. And guess what, the Lakers, not only they tied the game, they tied it on an 8-to-1 run.

Starting point is 00:07:22 So now they have momentum. Lakers went on a 14 to 3 scorn run during a four-minute stretch. And with 3.30 remaining, the Lakers took the lead, 47, 46. Lakers then went on to a 30-8 run to in the quarter. So Lakers completely turned things around in the second quarter. It was great to see that Lakers turned it around. Lakers actually outscored Portland in the second quarter, 33 to 20. 33 to 20 was a tremendous run.

Starting point is 00:07:49 LeBron James led the Lakers 14 points in the quarter. and now we're off and running. LeBron knows exactly what he's going to do. The Lakers need him to score points. The assists are great, but for the Lakers to win tonight, it was going to have to be LeBron being the one that scores the points when they need up most. So at the half, Lakers have a 60 to 51 lead, and things are going in the right direction for this Laker team right there.

Starting point is 00:08:11 So pretty exciting to see that the Lakers, again, after a first quarter that was kind of questionable, to see what kind of matchup and what the team was going to see tonight against Portland and what kind of effort you're going to see from the Lakers, where they're going to hang their head without Anthony Davis and who was going to step up? All of a sudden, LeBron James is the one that says, oh, look, I got to take this under my belt. There's a reason I'm all of fame or there's a reason why I have the most points. I got to do what's best for the team.

Starting point is 00:08:35 And in this game, it was best for LeBron James to score points. And that's exactly what he did. Again, 14 points in the second quarter for LeBron to give him 18 and the half. We'll get through the halftime stats in just a second. But when I mentioned the people over at game time, look, If you love going to live events like I do, whether it's sports, music, theater, or comedy, one of my favorite memories, of course, is attending concerts. But I tell you, my favorite concert of all time that went to in 2011,

Starting point is 00:09:02 it was at Staples Center at the time before it was crypto. And it was one of those concerts where I was like, man, I don't know if I want to go. My son dragged me along, and it was the best concert I've ever been to. And I love going to see all kinds of concerts. But it was Jay-Z and it was Kanye. And it's the excitement of going to a game or concert in person. The energy, the excitement that we're there. I remember like it was yesterday.

Starting point is 00:09:24 Sat ninth row. They play all the lights. The lights go on. I turn around and Kim Kardashian's behind me and all our sisters are there. But Kobe Bryant was sitting behind me. And so it was pretty cool. My favorite Laker, all of a sudden, he's behind me. We're all having a good time listening to music.

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Starting point is 00:11:20 game to the very end tonight's that night because as we said before the lakers have back-to-back games lakers welcome the hocks to town tomorrow so with lebron and saying that we got need to pick up the slack and he's already had a busy busy first half what's going to happen with the lakers well third quarter portland actually makes a little bit of a run and even though portland made a run the lakers look like they're kind of playing with them a little bit lakers in about scoring the blazers 2824 in the third quarter, but it wasn't exactly smooth. It wasn't what I had hoped for, at least, where I thought the Lakers were completely just, you know,

Starting point is 00:11:55 blow the doors off and it's not what happened. LeBron James again and continue to have a massive game. Again, LeBron James led the Lakers at this point with 27 points, seven to six and seven assists. And here's the guy of the night. It's Max Christie. Max Christie showed he belongs. Through three quarters, Max Christie had 21 points.

Starting point is 00:12:15 It was big for the lake. And so again, with the Lakers leading after three quarters and you're going, okay, the Lakers are able to make a run and put this team away. They have a 13 point lead after three at 8875. What are the Lakers going to do in the fourth quarter? Well, in my mind, we're going to keep things going the way they are. And with a 13 point lead, we'll quickly turn that into 20. We give LeBron the rest of the night off. Not what's happened at all.

Starting point is 00:12:41 Portland had their best quarter. Portland actually played extremely well in the fourth quarter. put a run together. And if wasn't for the Lakers scoring points at the end, it would be much worse than what the score actually is. Portland actually outscore the Lakers 3126 in the fourth quarter, but the Lakers needed everything. This was not easy for the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:13:00 And as Stu Lance says all the time, he's 100% right. He goes, you know, basically this is the NBA. You have to put teams away. Teams don't quit. And that's what you want as a sports fan. You don't want your team to quit, even if you're the Portland Trailblazers. You don't want to see that a team that sits. and throws the towel in.

Starting point is 00:13:16 So again, with 7.09 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Blazers cut the Lakers lead down to eight. LeBron James in this quarter, pretty cool record. If you want to argue if you're Michael Jordan fan and say, well, how many games did it take? Doesn't matter. LeBron James tied Michael Jordan with the most 30-point games in NBA history, at 562.

Starting point is 00:13:36 562 times LeBron James has scored more than 30 points in a game. Absolutely incredible. Consider you only play 82 games in a season. Absolutely amazing. turned 40 just a few days ago. And LeBron James, when he wants to, can do whatever he wants. Lakers, though, they get the win, which is the most important stat of the night. Lakers get the win, 114, 106, and it was exciting because the Lakers needed this.

Starting point is 00:14:01 And Lakers improved to 19 and 14 on the season. For the Lakers, they wrap up this four-game stretch at home tomorrow against the Hawks. And again, that's the 730 tip-off. But for the Lakers, they did what they needed to do. So how did all this happen with the Lakers? How did they get to where they needed to be? Let's take a look at the box score right here for the Lakers. There are some concerns and there's some good things in this box score as well.

Starting point is 00:14:23 As we mentioned, LeBron James, in 36 minutes, he had 38 points. And he had big three-pointers when they needed it. And there are times when you look at LeBron's game and you go, man, I don't know if you keep shooting. And there are times we're going keep shooting. And this was one of those nights where LeBron was feeling it. Shot 70% for three-point range. You made seven three-pointers on 10 attempts.

Starting point is 00:14:43 Again, 38 points, eight assists for LeBron. If you wonder about the triple double, nowhere closer triple double tonight. He had three rebounds to go along with 38 points, but eight assists were big, 15 to 25 from the field overall. But the 7 to 10, three point range was big because this is a stat that obviously has hurt the Lakers for a long time. The other big name, as we mentioned before, Max Christie. And 31 minutes, Max Christie had 28 points.

Starting point is 00:15:10 So 28 points for him, career high. three point shots. He made five of them. That is also a career high. Field goals, nine of 16. That is also a career high. So we've been waiting for Max Christie to be Max Christie. And if this is Max Christie, the Lakers have good things coming. Now it seems like he's getting more and more comfortable since he's been inserted back into the starting lineup. But for the Lakers to get this kind of game for Max Christie, let's see what he can do tomorrow night. Defensively, Max Christy is going to be on the toughest guy.

Starting point is 00:15:40 Max Christie today was on Simons. Max Christie will have Tray Young tomorrow, which is going to be extremely tough. But if you want to know how he did defensively, Simon's got his points, and he always will. Simon's finished with 23. Simons was 8 of 17 from the field for three-pointers, but he had 23 points. He led the Blazers with 23, and that was the most right there. Sharp also had 19, and for the Blazers, good for them. What's very strange about the Blazers is DeAndre Aitin, because he's a guy that seems so disinterested.

Starting point is 00:16:13 in what's going on in being a pro basketball player. If he was on the Lakers, we would hate him more than any player on the team. But we have seen Aiton play this way for a long time. If there's any time Aiton's going to step up and have a big game, it's going to be when Anthony Davis isn't there. But he didn't. Six points, six rebounds in 21 minutes. He doesn't do anything.

Starting point is 00:16:32 He doesn't do anything. Doesn't look like he wants to be there. He's a guy, believe or not, I've watched since he was in high school. And then, of course, in Arizona and then first overall pick by Phoenix. and now that he's on Portland, he's just disappearing. He's one of those guys that's wasting his NBA career. And if I was a Blazers fan, I'd be extremely frustrated. Blazers, again, continue to struggle.

Starting point is 00:16:53 So Blazers fall to 11 and 22 on the season. Scott Henderson off the bench for the player, excuse me, Scoot Henderson off the bench had 12 points for the Blazers. So what happened to Austin Reeves tonight? Because Austin Reeves, again, has been playing his best basketball of his career of late. As we said, Portland's plan was to come out. and shut Austin Reeves down. Austin Reeves on the night had 15 points, 11 assists.

Starting point is 00:17:17 If he wasn't going to get a chance to get his points, he was able to do it by distributing the ball. Good things happen when Austin Reeves on the fore. I know the turnovers are numbers. He talks about bringing down the Lakers turnover-wise. It's always a higher number than we ever want. It was 12 tonight. Austin Reeves had three of them.

Starting point is 00:17:32 LeBron had four of them. So we want to see the turnovers come down. But for Austin Reeves, he'll tell you that's probably the part of his game that bothers them most is that when he turns the ball over. something he's trying to work on. He said in high school, he was a point guard, and he can be better at that. And again, you don't want to turn the ball over. That's usually, you know, one of the first things you look at when you lose games. Same thing when you're shooting free throws. By the way, free throws tonight for the Lakers, outstanding night. Lakers were 13 to 14. They shoot 92.9 percent from the line. So you make your free throws, you don't turn the ball over.

Starting point is 00:18:03 There's a good chance that you're going to win ball games. There's a reason why the Lakers made these trades to increase their defense. they want to keep teams down below 100. They want to do the best they can to shut the other team down defensively and give the Lakers the best chance to make up for what they are. And really, the Lakers are not a great shooting team. And if they're going to be a team that doesn't sit down and light up the scoreboard, you've got to keep the other team from lighting up the scoreboard. Field goal percentage for the Lakers, they shot 46% from the field

Starting point is 00:18:30 and 35% from three point range. Not great, not terrible. But for the Lakers, 15 of 43 from behind the arc. that's where they finish tonight. Here's my concern for the Lakers, and it's very strange. I don't know why, but Rui, who we have said for a long time, man is the ultimate team player, and you don't have to worry about him. He's consistent.

Starting point is 00:18:52 He hasn't been good the last two games. He wasn't good against Cleveland, and he wasn't good tonight. Again, I don't know if it just happens to be just lucky to draw, that it just kind of comes out this way with Rui, and this is what he's going through right now through. It's only two games. If that's the argument, you want to, push back. But there's been a lot of talk that when Dorian Finney Smith was traded to the

Starting point is 00:19:12 Lakers, that Rui would go to the bench and Phine Smith would step in as a starter because he was a starter before with the Nets. And maybe Rui's looking over his shoulder. Maybe he's trying too hard. Maybe he's looking over at J.J. Redick wondering if a move is coming, that he's basically going to take him out of the game. I don't know what's going on. I'd like to believe it's just to fluke that he's had two bad games that he hasn't been able to play up to his capability. So It's a little bit frustrating right there. I'll get to some of your comments in a second here, but we'll talk more about this Laker team

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Starting point is 00:20:39 Just visit fandle.com to join today. That's fandul.com for your chance at $250 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with Fandle, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Okay, so looking at what the Lakers are doing right now, let's look at some of the guys off the bench and how they did. Okay, we're happy to have that they made a trade, meaning that Palinca made a trade. Are they the right guys? This is really the big trade of the year. If you're wondering, or are there more trades coming?

Starting point is 00:21:09 This isn't the Dodgers. This isn't one of those deals where Andrew Friedman's running things and there's no salary cap. This is the Lakers. And because of this move, it's going to keep the Lakers for getting a bigger name guy. If you thought maybe there's a chance that Phoenix falls out of this and maybe you can grab a Kevin Durant, it's going to be very unlikely like something like this happens. The chance of the Lakers getting a big name All-Star to join LeBron and AD doesn't look like

Starting point is 00:21:33 it's going to happen. So get used to watching Dorian Finney Smith and hopefully that he steps up to be the player that Lakers thought he was going to be and also look up to see what Shake Milton's doing. So far, neither one have been overly impressive. Okay. Dorian Finney Smith looked a little bit more comfortable, but at the same time nowhere close to a guy that feels like he understands not only the offense, but who his teammates are and how the Lakers do get things done. In 24 minutes a night for Dorian Finney Smith, he was one of six from the field.

Starting point is 00:22:03 and that one was a three-pointer. Okay, so again, there's one of four from behind the arick. Not great. Only had three points on the night. Only had four rebounds, two assists, one steal, one turnover, three fouls. Okay, just very, very average. If not, you want to say below average, but the Lakers need more. There's a reason why they pulled this trade, and right now,

Starting point is 00:22:23 Dore and Finney Smith in the first two games, hasn't been impressive at all. When you look at Shake Milton, Jake Milton, 16 minutes tonight, 2 of 5 from the field, over 3, 3.3. range, finishes with four points, three rebounds from him, no assists, no nothing. I mean, just not a lot except for solid defense, which is what the Lakers want. The Lakers want solid defense. I know as fans, we look at the box score and we're expecting points, but right now, you didn't get that from Shake Milton tonight.

Starting point is 00:22:50 And for Dalton Connect, hit a big follow-up rebound on a LeBron miss, but Dalton Connect three-point shots tonight, 0 for three. It's very frustrating and to see the Dalton Connect isn't getting the shots that we're hoping he would get. He was two of six from the field, over three, three point range, made both of his free throws to give him six points on the night and 17 minutes, but not exactly what you're hoping for from the Lakers. You expect more bench points from the Lakers. So for the Lakers, it's not exactly what you want. Lakers finished bench points with only 23 tonight. Not exactly what you're hoping for. Cam Reddish had two points. He shot the ball three times, missed a three point attempt. Again, I'm done with Cam Redis shooting three. It drives me crazy when I see Cam Reddish. I just shooting threes. It's probably like the way Portland feels when Aiton's shooting threes for them. The guy's shooting 21% from three-point range yet. You've got a guy like eight and who's just fire them up. For the Blazers, if you're wondering, Blazers had 21 bench points for them. So for the Lakers, again, Portland's not a good team. Lakers did what they're

Starting point is 00:23:49 supposed to do. They're supposed to get a win and they did. 114-106. But at the same time, do we expect more from the Lakers? Do we expect more from this Laker team? And again, and I'm looking at BC in the comments here. He says, easily Max's best game ever. It was, BC. I mean, I don't know about you, but I've become a little bit frustrated with Max Christy because there's so much talk of Max Christy before the season began

Starting point is 00:24:12 and going, okay, what's Max Christy going to do? And this is the time that Max Christy steps up. And he hasn't until tonight. And then Max Christy has done kind of what your role players do, but where's the real Max Christy? We want to see a defender, but we also want to see a score. We know he knocks down free throws and we need him, but we need him to knock down the threes the way he did tonight.

Starting point is 00:24:34 We thought it was great when he's in the corner on the right side. He knocks down a three-pointer. Then he gets the ball on the left side, knocks down another three-pointer, and you're going, okay, this could definitely go in the Lakers direction. And so very exciting to see that Max, Chris, who was able to step up. Craig says LeBron was fantastic. Craig, LeBron is fantastic.

Starting point is 00:24:53 LeBron James is one of those athletes that, unless you even see him in person, you don't even realize how great he is. He is amazing. I don't care if he's 40 years old. If he was 24 years old and you're at the game tonight, you're looking at LeBron James and you realize not only is he the strongest guy on the floor, he's the fastest guy on the four.

Starting point is 00:25:10 Some of you might disagree with me. I'm telling you, when you go to a Laker game in person, you realize the speed that LeBron has, it is absolutely incredible to see what he is doing. The fact that he's 40 years old just puts another mark into his resume on how great of a player he is, and it's interesting to see how long, will LeBron play? He came out the other day and said, look, I might have five to seven years

Starting point is 00:25:31 left in this body to keep playing at a high level. Who are we to say no? I mean, it sounds crazy, but we've never seen anything like it. I don't know if you guys saw on Instagram this week when it showed all the Hall of Famers that LeBron has played against in his career and how they're long gone. And what I mean, long gone, I mean, they retired a long time ago. And then if you look at where those guys are today, and now they all kind of have that pot belly and they're all a little bit overweight and it's hard to believe they were pro athletes and they completely are throwing the towel in on taking care of themselves and then you're looking at lebron james do what he does and and you're just absolutely incredible to see how long lebron has played and how long he's played this game at such a high level

Starting point is 00:26:09 and continues to play at a high level look what he did tonight and how he turned it on put the team on his back when he had to and was absolutely incredible seven three pointers again for lebron absolutely amazing night lebron has never looked better than he he's playing right now he's as good as he wants to be on any given night. When LeBron doesn't play well, I think it's more of an energy, almost like LeBron gets a little bit bored. And that's one of those things when you compare the greatest of all time,

Starting point is 00:26:35 because I get the questions like your friends are asking you as well, who's the greatest of all time? Jordan never seemed like he got bored. He found something to get into a game where he was going to be motivated. Kobe Bryant did the same thing. Kobe got everything he could out of his body, whether

Starting point is 00:26:51 it was broken fingers, dislocated fingers, whether it was a torn Achilles, whether it was a separated shoulder. Kobe always found something to motivate him. There are times where it seems like LeBron has, hey, I've been through it. I've seen it all. I've done it all. There's nothing that's going to happen tonight that I haven't already seen. And that's almost my only thing with LeBron. It doesn't happen often, but men, the Lakers are going to ride or die with LeBron. Meaning if LeBron's ready to play tonight, the Lakers are going to feel that energy and they're going to sit there and get a little bit better. Let's go through where the Lakers are right now.

Starting point is 00:27:21 I always say to you, every single show, I want to see the Lakers in the four spot or better in the Western Conference Finals heading into the playoffs. So here we are in January 2nd. Number one has not changed. Oklahoma City Thunder, there's no stop in the Thunder right now. They've won 13 games in a row. Thunder are playing great basketball, 28 and 5 on the season. Memphis playing great basketball as well. Memphis 7 have won seven of the last 10.

Starting point is 00:27:45 They're 23 and 11. The Rockets, 22, and 11. Lakers are going to see the Rockets and the Mavs coming up after Fridays. a game. So those will be road games for the Lakers. Should be exciting what the Lakers look like against the Houston Rockets. They're the third seed. Denver Nuggets have moved up to the fourth seed. Told you, watch out for Denver. Denver's that team that scares me more than anyone else just because Denver has

Starting point is 00:28:05 had the Lakers number and they talk so much trash. I can't stand the Denver Nuggets. They're really good against the Lakers, but man, it is frustrating that the Lakers have beaten up on them, their entire franchise history. But now that the Nuggets are, have been playing well against the Lakers, they do not stop talking. Dallas Mavericks. Again, we expect them to struggle without Luca and they are. They're now 20 and 14 on the season. I've lost three straight games. They're the number five seed. And they're your Lakers right there at number six. Lakers are the six seats. They aren't far back.

Starting point is 00:28:33 Okay. The Lakers are only a half game back of the Nuggets right now. So that's it. The four seed is the Nuggets. The Lakers are the six seed. The Lakers are a half game back. They can fix this in just a few games if they play the type of basketball they play tonight. Clippers are the seven seed. Minnesota is the eighth seed, golden states, the ninth seed. If you get a chance, watch the highlights tonight. Look at Steph Curry. It's the best three-point shooting night he's ever had in his career. It's worth watching.

Starting point is 00:28:59 And San Antonio, believe or not, is the 10th seed. Outside looking in in the Western Conference, Phoenix, Sacramento, Portland, Utah, and the New Orleans Pelican. So it wraps up that way. Lakers will be back in action tomorrow night. I hope you join me for that as well. Lakers will take on the Atlanta Hawks. It's a revenge game for the Lakers.

Starting point is 00:29:17 If you remember, it was one of the more disturbing losses of the season, for the Lakers when they went for Miami in a disappointing game, went to Atlanta in a game they had won, and then the Lakers could not do anything. The Lakers at the end completely threw the game away, almost like it takes a lot of work to throw a game like that away. But one of the more frustrating loss of the season where the one they lost to the Hawks the first time,

Starting point is 00:29:39 second and the last time they will see them, will be tomorrow night at Crypto. Again, it will be exciting. Trey Young, a guy that we all were hoping who's going to be a Laker one day. Who knows, it doesn't look like it's going to happen this year. but again, 730 tip off from crypto. Lakers look to take on the Lanna Hawks.

Starting point is 00:29:54 But tonight, Lakers win. They improve. They get their 19th win of the season, 14 losses to go with it. Lakers win 114, 106 over the Portland drillblazers. We'll talk tomorrow night. Thank you so much for being with me. And we'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully talking about another Laker victory, everybody.

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - LAKERS POSTCAST Lakers beat the Blazers 114-106

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